A Busy Few Months
Since my last report I have been busily focusing on my family and endless challenges child rearing. A lot can change in three months. The same theory of course applies to the film Industry – lots has happened during my absence.
I haven’t been too involved with jobs coming our way, but I still had gear out there and managed a few guest appearances when the team got caught short on the bigger jobs.
It seems like we have had a brief return of the always exciting car commercials. Hyundai and Nissan, along with a new Samsung-branded vehicle from Korea, all shot new TVCs around the South Island. Sam Strain dusted off his tracking vehicle and with the new Shotover Camera Systems mount we shot car-to-car, aerials and some ground-to-car based footage. The new Nissan Navara shoot was probably the highlight as it had a few special effects and a bit of drama from the talent.
A standout job for me was the latest Tourism New Zealand TVC, shot and directed by some Aussies for the Aussie market. There was some body rig action during some nice heli-ski runs that needed grip supervision, so I took one for the team and strapped on my snowboard for a few days. The shooting team brought its own UAV-style heli-rig that could fly a Red Epic. That was fun to watch at night on Coronet peak while it tracked with a group of skiers.
We had Speights shoot the New Zealand parts of their latest international piece featuring a homesick chap living in New York. Curious brought this to town along with a six-day stills shoot.
The only other New Zealand product was a small Mainland job. Batch Films produced a TVC for Quaker Oats. I only did one day on this, building a tricky crane platform on top of a rocky outcrop on the Nevis Saddle. A bunch of excitable French gentlemen shot, directed and AD’d on the day.
So, on the TVC front we have had a good flow of work in the last few months. As usual, all of it seemed to come in a big bunch and after some date changing and crew manipulation, we all got a taste of the action. The feast-and-famine theme still applies in the South as it has done for as long as I can remember. Weeks and weeks of nothing and then three jobs in a five-day window!
In other news, I attended the ‘Behind the DoP’ workshop in Queenstown which I thoroughly enjoyed. We had a decent turnout of local techos, a bunch from Dunedin and a group out of Invercargill from the Southern Institute of Technology. Alun Bollinger and Simon Raby taught and entertained with some classic film tales. Just when you think you know a few things, something like this comes along and teaches you a whole new appreciation for the art!
We also had our Guild AGM in November, the usual drama of the coming together of all the local personalities who sometimes only see each other on this special day, have a beer and tell all how they feel about the way things are or are not going.
I had to leave my wife and child for three days to work on the latest Silver Fern Farms TVC up on the Banks Peninsula. It was a funny job with two great comic actors directed by Robert Sarkies for Capital City Films. Glad I did the job but realised going away is different when you have kids. Good to be working again though – the classic double-edged sword conundrum. Another job I had was for Schweppes, with a lot of stunts and large builds for crane platforms and such.
So that’s the wrap on Queenstown for this issue, hopefully a few more jobs trickle in this year. I also hope everyone is busy and happy, or quiet and enjoying the down time. Either way, have a good summer.
Joshua Dunn, Queenstown branch member
